Senators at the plenary on Wednesday engaged one another in a war of attrition over the request by President Muhammadu Buhari, to approve Ways and Means Advances restructuring to the tune of N23.7 trillion.
Trouble started when the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos West) came up with a report on Ways and Means 2022, as requested by President Muhammadu Buhari last week.
Soon after the presentation by Senator Adeola, Senator Apiafi (PDP, Rivers West) raised a point of order, with an argument that President Buhari’s request was unconstitutional and what the Senate was about to do by considering the request is unknown in Nigerian law and the Senate President shouted her down.
Events took another dimension as senators began to shout, standing up and shouting with aggression.
Some lawmakers such as Senator Smart Adeyemi (APC, Kogi West), and George Sekibo (PDP Rivers) raised a motion in support of Apiafi that the Senate President had no power to shout down a senator while speaking.
The Senate, thereafter, went into a closed-door session .
It would be recalled that President Buhari had, last week, written to the Senate, requesting the approval of restructuring of N23.7 trillion Ways and Means advances given to the federal government by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The President in a letter read by Senate President during plenary session last Wednesday, explained that Ways and Means are advances from the Central Bank of Nigeria to the federal government for emergency funding of delayed receipt of fiscal deficit.
According to him, the ways and means balances as at 19th December 2022 is N22.7 trillion.
President Buhari further stated in the letter that he has approved the securitization of the ways and means balances along the following terms: Amount, N23 .7 trillion; Tenure, 40 years; Moratorium on principal repayment, three years and Pricing interest rate 9% .
